Man kidnaps, rapes 4-year-old near Mumbai, gets life term

The girl told her mother that the man had sexually assaulted her, following which her parents filed a police complaint and a case was registered.

A 29-year-old man was recently sentenced to life imprisonment by a sessions court in Vasai for kidnapping and raping a four-year-old girl in June 2017.

The man became friendly with the family and would invite the minor to play in his house, assistant public prosecutor Kadambini Khandagale told the court. (AP File Photo)

The convict was a factory worker living in Damupada, Sativli, Vasai (East). The survivor and her mother were from the same village in UP as the convict. They had come to stay with a relative in Vasai as the girl’s father worked in Kurla.

The man became friendly with the family and would invite the minor to play in his house, assistant public prosecutor Kadambini Khandagale told the court.

On June 23, 2017, around 9pm, while her mother was cooking dinner, the survivor was playing outside her home when he came and carried her to a desolate area nearby. The convict took her behind some bushes near a temple and raped her. Meanwhile, the girl’s mother became worried as she could not find her child started searching the area along with her family members.

They found the girl in a semiconscious state near a nullah the next morning.

The girl told her mother that the man had sexually assaulted her, following which her parents filed a police complaint and a case was registered under sections 363 (kidnapping) and 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, with the Waliv police. The convict was arrested the same day and was lodged at Thane Central Jail after being denied bail.

On August 22, sessions judge AU Kadam found the 29-year-old guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The judge also referred the case to the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), Thane, for rendering compensation to the survivor, as she is a minor.